1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to surgical drapes and the like, and more particularly to disposable surgical drapes which are especially useful in cardiovascular surgery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art has provided a variety of drapes, both reusable and disposable, which are used to cover the body of a patient during a surgical or related procedure and which serve to maintain a sterile barrier around the operative site. In some cases, there is available a single surgical drape which is suitable for a given surgical procedure, while in other cases it is necessary to apply two or more surgical drapes to a patient in order to properly prepare him for surgery. For example, in the case of cardiovascular surgery, where it is necessary to expose one or both legs of the patient in addition to the chest area, it has been proposed to use one fenestrated drape for the chest area and a second fenestrated drape for covering the area of the body from roughly the waist to the feet. The use of two or more drapes in a given surgical procedure makes it necessary for the hospital to maintain a stock of different drapes. The use of two drapes consumes valuable time of operating room personnel and also requires that the drapes be clipped together by, for example, towel clips. Quite disadvantageously, such clipping tends to put holes in the drapes which holes may provide sites for migration of bacteria.